environment

Noord-Drenthe is the most prosperous region in the Netherlands, according to the Broad Prosperity Indicator by Rabobank and Utrecht University. Residents of Noord-Drenthe are happy, healthy and feel safe. Gooi also scored very well. People living in the Randstad are much less satisfied, ANP reports.

On Monday State Secretary Sharon Dijksma of Infrastructure and Environment is giving the go ahead for the establishment of the Global Center of Excellence on Climate change. The center will be based in the Netherlands and is being established by the Netherlands, Japan and the United Nations environmental organization UNEP, NU.nl reports.

Eating less meat and drinking less alcohol and soft drinks will not only benefit Dutch people's health, but also the environment, the national institute for public health and environment RIVM said in a report on Tuesday, the Volkskrant reports.

The Netherlands is implementing a total of 50 changes to Dutch law as of January 1st, 2017. These changes affect everything from the minimum wage and what is covered in the basic health insurance package to the amount in mortgage you can borrow when buying a house.

The Dutch government published their annual roundup of law changes in the week before Christmas, broken down into nine categories. Find the summary below.

The next Dutch government should include a Minister for Mobility, who must focus on improving the connection in and between cities to prevent a further increase in traffic jams and accidents, according to a manifest set up by a coalition consisting of seven major public transporters and car companies, NOS reports.

Greenpeace wants energy from coal power plants to be banned from the Netherlands grid, director Sylvia Borren of Greenpeace Nederland said in an interview with Dutch newspaper Trouw. According to her, banning coal power will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help hit the targets in the Urgenda ruling and the climate agreement signed in Paris.

The ban on free plastic shopping bags, implemented on January 1st, is bearing fruit of success. Since the implementation, all retailers report a decrease in plastic bag consumption of at least 50 percent, some large retailers even go as far as 85 percent, Trouw reports based on own investigation.

For the third year in the row, Amsterdam made it to 11th place on the Mercer Quality of Living Rankings. Amsterdam is the only Dutch city to make it onto the rankings. Vienna has the highest quality of life in the world, Baghdad has the worst.

Amsterdam plans to be the first city in all of Europe to be completely emissions free. The Amsterdam mayor and aldermen released a set of measures on Friday to help achieve their goal of clean, emission-free transport by 2025.

Every year over December Dutch people use 5 million liters of oil to make millions of their New Year's snacks oliebollen - tennis ball-sized lumps of fried dough smothered in powdered sugar. Reest and Wieden and other water boards are concerned about how much of that oil end up in the drains.

A massive 20,700 people were seriously injured in traffic accidents last year, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment announced on Wednesday. That is an increase of 1,900 serious injuries compared to 2013. Traffic association ANWB is "shocked and disappointed" by these figures

The Anglo-Dutch oil company, Shell, announced it will be closing down its operations in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea due to the high costs and strict regulations that govern the exploration for oil. Director of Shell Upstream Americas, Marvin Odum reported that the company is disappointed at the exploration results that came from the Burger J exploration well in the region, and will now cease further exploration activity off Alaska's coastline for the foreseeable future.

Today the leaders of factions in the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, is debating the 2016 budget which was presented at Prinsjesdag on Tuesday. As can be expected, the opposition parties have a lot to say about the budget, many focusing on the asylum plan.

Minister Edith Schippers of Public Health has made agreements with parties in healthcare to curb improper use of antibiotics and instead focus on infection prevention. This is an extra effort in the fight against antibiotics resistance.

The approach of the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to collusion between companies is not always the best decision for sustainability and environmental friendliness, said Economics Affairs Minister Henk Kamp. Quite often organizations reach agreements that are actually favorable for the environment, according to the Minister, but the watchdog stops deals dead in their tracks to prevent collusion between firms, Kamp said in a letter.

Dutch labour party PvdA wants customers to pay a deposit on several types of goods that is repaid when they return the used product back to the store. The coalition partner believes that it should enhance recycling for products like clothing, toys and cans.

Alaska has large potential oil reserves that the world is going to demand in the future, Shell CEO Dick Benschop told AD. Oil in the region is increasingly difficult to recover, however, the company's technological potential fits the challenge.

Running UberPOP drivers off the road and detaining drivers until police arrive is not acceptable, says Infrastructure and Environment Secretary Wilma Mansveld. Several traditional taxi drivers have tried to box in the alternative service’s drivers in recent weeks as a protest over the company’s business practices.

At least 574 people were treated for fireworks-related injuries in the Netherlands on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, according to safety firm VeiligheidNL. The organization says it is a sharp drop from last year's celebrations, when an additional 126 were hurt.

Dr Erwann Michel-Kerjan and co-authors, winners of this year's Science of Risk: Climate Change category, proposed four flood resilience strategies to protect coastal megacities from the likes of Superstorm Sandy. Their strategies included the levee systems designed for the Netherlands by Dutch engineers in early 1950's.